Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-10-29
MISS BECKY'S HOME.
MARY N. PRESCOTT.

ry fact, but there was nothing else for
her to do, it seemed. Who would
think of offering any other home to
a poor, almost helpless old woman
who had outlived her usefulness?
Having passed her days in other peo-
ple's houses, so to speak, she might
not mind it as much, perhaps, as a
more fortunate being.
eyes," she said ''there's a vacancy
in the 'Old Ladies' Home and the
hundred dollars that Parson Amory
left me will pay my way in, but it
wouldn't last long if l began to spend
it, you know, and l shall have a
warm bed and my regular meals
without worrying about where the
next ones coming from. Pm most
tired worrying about ways and
means. Seems as though / had been
about it all my life; ever since father
was taken with heart disease hearing
the class in algebra. Now that the
rheumatism has got the better of me,
so that / can't work in cold weather,
and the doctor says it'll draw my
fingers up so that | can't s them
soon, it doesn't seem as if there was
anything left for me in this world but
the home-and / ought to be thank
full for that!
Miss Becky had had other eXpecta-
tons in her heyday, when young
Larry Rogers met her and carried
her basket; when his strong arm
padded her down the broad river to
church on Sunday mornings; when
they sang together in the choir from
the same hym book when they lott
cred homeward in the fragrant sum.
mer dusk, and heard the whip-poor.
will complain, and startled the fire
flies in the hedges a they brushed
by. 1t sometimes seemed to Miss
Becky as if all this had happened in
another planet. She was young.then
with q bloom on her cheek; but al
though the rheumatism had bent hel
figure and rendered her more or less
helpless at times, yet her dark, vel
vety eyes looked out like soft stars
and the ghost of dimple still flicker
ed on her cheeks and chin in spite o
her sixty odd years. Miss Becky
father had BEEN the district schoo
teacher in those far off days of hel
girlhood. He had taught her thu
simple lore at his command, but /
was Larry Rogers who had laugh
her music, hour after hour, in TIT
empty schoolhouse they had prac
ticed together, while he wrote thu
score on the blackboard. But all thi
had not suficed to enable her to carr
a livelihood. Her education, must
cal and otherwise, had stopped shor
of any commercial value. In thos
days she never expected to earn he
living by the sweat of her brow
Larry was going to give her every
thing. How trivial the little quarre
seemed today which circumvente'
this fine resolve Of his! But wha
magnitude it had assumed at tn
time! On his return from a neigh
boring city, some busy-body ha'
whispered to Larry that Miss Beck,
had been seer driving with SOUR
Eustis' son Sam behind two trotter:
Sam was just home from college,
harum-scarum fellow, they said, VIII
made love right and left and gamble
bit and when Larry approache
her with it she had not denied; sh
had simply said "What then? ]
you choose to listen to gossip rathe
than wait till you"
"But you didn't tell me, and Nv
been home a week."
81 had forgotten all about it till 70
reminded me-" said Becky.
"It's such an every day affair fc
you to drive with Sam Eustis ~
which incredulity so stung Becky ths
she would not condescend to eXplai
that she had carried someneedlewor
up to Squire Eustis', which she ha
been doing for his wife, and that 6
she left to walk home Sam was ius
starting off with his smart chaise an
new dapple-grays, andtheS Squire ha
said, "Take Miss Becky home, San
and show her their paces;" and ho'
she had been ashamed to refuse the
kindness, although preferring to wal
q thousand times; and how, once i
the chaise, Sam had been the pink
courtesy, and had begged her to driN
over with him to ParsOn Amory'
three miles out of her way, "thi
Lucy Amory may see you don't di
dain my company. For, you see,